Another Easy Nail Art Idea!

We LOVE nail art, and we especially LOVE when it’s easy!  Today’s post is another idea for a professional looking manicure you can do at home.  Just like our last nail art post,  you don’t even need to click through to see the rest of the instructions, they’re that simple.  Here we go!

As always, apply a clear base coat and let it dry.  Follow with a thin coat of your base color and let that dry as well.  Apply a second coat of color, and while it’s wet, make a dot in a contrasting color near your cuticle, centering it as well as you can.  Placing the dot on wet polish creates a smoother surface, but this will also work just fine if you can’t move fast enough or simply prefer waiting until your second coat of color dries–just be aware that your dots may be slightly raised.  Do make sure to let your dots dry a bit before applying top coat, so they don’t smear.

You could buy a special dotting tool for this manicure, but you can also just use a bobby pin like I showed you in my leopard nails post.  This time, I wanted bigger dots, so I stuck a glass head sewing pin into the eraser of a pencil and used that.  I LOVE saving money by using what I already have!

My special “dotting tool.”

Of course, for a more festive look, you can put polka dots all over instead of doing just one.  You can also experiment with multi-colored dots and different color combinations.  Whatever you decide, let us know how it turns out, because WE LOVE THIS STUFF!
-Viv

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Simple Yet Fancy DIY Nail Art

We LOVE nail art!  Sometimes it’s too time consuming or complicated, though.  On those occasions, an easy, simple design like this one is perfect.  Today’s post is a tutorial  that explains exactly how to do it.

Step 1: Apply a base coat followed by 2 coats of the color of your choice.  (I used a sheer baby pink.)  Let it dry.

Step 2:  Use a fine brush to add a single stripe of a contrasting color to each nail.  (I used gold.)  Angle the stripes differently on each nail for a random look.  That way, you don’t have to align anything perfectly to make your lines all match.  You could buy a special striping brush, but I just trimmed an old eyeliner brush to make it super thin.  NAIL ART HACK: you don’t need a perfectly steady hand for this.  Try laying the brush parallel to your nail instead of holding it perpendicular like a pencil.  You’ll have less “drawing” to do, because the length of the bristles will create the start of a perfectly straight line.  When striping with your non-dominant hand, try holding the brush still and “dragging” your dominant nail under it to create a straighter stripe.

Step 3:  Apply top coat after letting your stripes dry enough that they won’t smear.

Like almost everything we share here, this is something SUPER easy that you can also customize.  Play with different colors!  Try high contrast or tone-on-tone combinations!  If you have both glossy and matte topcoats, you could even use just a single polish color and make the stripes in the contrasting finish, like this!

I hope you enjoyed this easy idea.  Let us know if you try it, and make sure to show us how it turned out, because WE LOVE THIS STUFF!

-Viv

Here’s the same nail art with a extra stripe here and there, using black as the base color.

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EASY Glitter Gradient Nails

I used a matte topcoat on this to make it extra special. It sounds counter-intuitive but matte glitter looks so cool!

We LOVE glitter, and we LOVE nail polish!  Today’s post is a helpful hint for giving yourself a super professional looking glitter gradient manicure.  It’s so easy, you don’t even need to click through for the rest of the post!  Are you ready?  Here it is!

Use a makeup sponge.  That’s it!  Actually, any other kind of sponge will work too!  You can even cut it into smaller pieces so you get multiple uses out of one tiny sponge.

First, I paint my nails with a base color and let it dry.  Then I apply glitter polish directly to the sponge and dab it on.  To create a gradient, don’t reapply glitter to the sponge right away; just keep dabbing and moving the sponge in the direction you want it to fade.  Afterward, you can enhance the gradient effect by reappyling glitter to the sponge and concentrating on the area that should be more dense with sparkles.  It’s pretty easy, and the sponge soaks up the polish but not the glitter, so you’re not applying super thick coats that take forever to dry.

But don’t just take our word for it.  Try it for yourself, and let us know how your manicure turns out, because WE LOVE THIS STUFF!

-Viv

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Leopard Nail Art (RAWR!)

We LOVE these nails!  

I know, I know, not everyone is into nail art, but hey–animal print is sort of a classic, right?  Also, there are tons of leopard nail art tutorials online, but I figured some of you may not have seen them.  Every time I rock this look, people think I applied nail stickers or had my nails done by a pro.  They’re always surprised to find out I did it myself, but it’s so easy, you can too.  On both hands!

Click through for the details.

-Viv